The Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species, meeting in Panama, took a decision on Friday, November 25, qualified as“historical” by the host country. It aims to protect fifty-four species of requiem sharks (from the family of Carcharhinidae) and hammerhead sharks (Sphyrnidae) threatened by the flourishing traffic of their fins in Asia.
Delegates from 183 states and the European Union (EU) decided in plenary session to regulate their fishing. These sharks have been included in appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) strictly limiting the trade of certain species by consensus. These are species that are not yet threatened with extinction but could become so if their trade is not tightly controlled. Appendix I completely prohibits trade in certain species.
Japan has expressed reservations about the protection granted to the blue shark, considering that it is not an endangered species. The Japanese delegate expressed “great concern” of Tokyo concerning the consequences of this decision judged “detrimental from a social and economic point of view” for the fishermen of his country.
The protection of these sharks, requested by the EU and fifteen countries was the most discussed decision of the summit which began on November 14. Over the course of the debates, it became an emblematic measure of the conference and several delegations had put stuffed sharks on their desks.
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Therapeutic and aphrodisiac virtues
Shirley Binder, the delegate from Panama, pointed out that the sharks which will henceforth benefit from the protection of Cites represented “approximately 90% of the market” shark fins. This market, whose center is in Hong Kong, exceeds half a billion dollars per year (483 million euros). The fins can be sold for 1,000 dollars (960 euros) per kilo in East Asia to make very famous soups of traditional Chinese cuisine.
Adorned with mythical therapeutic and aphrodisiac virtues, formerly reserved for the emperor of China, then for an elite, this dish has become a marker of social success, essential in banquets and festive meals.
Guitar rays (Rhinobatidae) and freshwater stingray species (Potamotrygon) will also benefit from the protection of appendix II, decided the Cites by consensus.
“This will be remembered as the day we turned the tide to prevent the extinction of the world’s sharks and rays”welcomed in a press release the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). “This historic list of around 100 highly traded species will lead to the national level conservation measures that these species urgently need. The critical next step will be to implement these listings and ensure they translate into stronger trade and fisheries management measures as soon as possible.”avertit the NGO.
According to the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Joaquin de la Torre, “Sharks and rays are the most endangered group of species today, more endangered even than elephants and big cats”. “International demand for their fins and meat (…) has caused a significant decrease in their populations worldwide: it is estimated that more than 100 million sharks die each year in fisheries, double that” the number of samples to preserve the species, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The only dissonant voice within organizations for the defense of the environment, the French NGO Fondation Brigitte Bardot denounced in a press release “a high mass [qui] has once again demonstrated that Cites is not intended to protect wild animals but to orchestrate their international trade by attempting to repair, with a few band-aids, the ecological disaster it is causing”.